Bobo's Daughter

Dorothy “Dottie” “Jojo” Barnett Little

Bonnie — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:35:43 +0000

Bobo’s Daughter
Thirteen years ago today my delightful, interesting, beautiful, complicated, difficult mommy, Dorothy “Jojo” Barnett Little, the circus’s “first girl clown” went home to be with the Lord. 1919-1997 I am grateful to you, mom, for all you taught me, for changing the system as best you could and for tap dancing in the kitchen when you peeled potatoes and carrots. Love, Bonnie

Wall Photos
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Wall Photos

Publishingville 2011

Bonnie — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:35:05 +0000

This is the last time I AM TRYING TO POST SOMETHING ON MY BLOG TODAY. I tried two other times and managed to delete my “interesting” comments as soon as I was finished. I was trying to write the 2nd installment of my adventures in publishingville, but gave up and instead decided to write these wonderful words by Albert Camus, found in a favorite book of mine, and illustrated by Corita Kent.

Great ideas, it has been said,
come into the world as gently as doves.
Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear;
amid the uproar of empires and nations,
a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of life and hope.
some will say that this hope lies in a nation;
others, in a man.
I believe rather that it is awakened, revived,
nourished by millions of solitary individuals
whose deeds and works everyday
negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history.
As a result, there shines forth fleetingly
the ever-threatened truth
that each and every man,
on the foundation of this own sufferings and joys,
builds for all.
Albert Camus

What are you building for others today?

Book Business 2011

Bonnie — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:43:56 +0000

im not sure

The Book Business 2011 . . . Yikes!!!!

Bonnie — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:57:19 +0000

I’ve been silent about my book since April. This was for a good reason: I was in SHOCK. After a few months of promoting “Bobo’s Daughter” I was sent an email saying my publisher was filing for bankruptcy. I knew it was time to regroup using the lemons and lemonade theory.

During the past few months I found another distributor for me and the other authors once represented by Book Pros. I arranged to have my books shipped from one location to another and then tried to find my books that were stolen through the U.S. Post Office. Yes, on top of the publisher going bankrupt I had a hundred books lost, fresh off the press, by the U.S. Postal Service. My most dreaded fear was that I would find them months later offered for a minimal price on Amazon. That dreaded fear came true.

Even though I filed MANY complaints and lost merchandise reports, NO ONE helped me. I called so many times I was getting to be on a first name basis with the Customer Service Representatives. Quite frankly, I think I can understand why the U.S. Post Office is going under: no one cares.

“Lost” merchandise through the U.S. Post office is sent to a warehouse in the Atlanta area, stored and later auctioned off. Even though I begged employees to look for my books the answers I received were vague. It couldn’t be that difficult to contact the authors of the books, I thought, whose contact information is clearly marked. But, it was.

I self published Bobo’s Daughter 10 years ago. Did it all myself and published through Morris Publishing. They first started having success when they published church cookbooks. Years later they expanded and published for self published authors.

I knew that I needed to protect the story and the name of my dad and wasn’t willing to “sell” my story to a mainstream publishing house. Self publishing for a first time unknown author seemed to be the best fit.

I sold 900 copies of the paper back version of Bobo’s Daughter in nine months. Then 9/11 happened and no one bought anything. At a normal book signing I would never sell anything less than 30 copies. After 9/11 I would walk away from a book store only selling 4. It was clear something had changed in our country. We were frozen in fear.

To be continued . . .

Thoughts for healing

Bonnie — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:51:30 +0000

“Agonies are one of my changes of garments. I do not ask the wounded person how he feels. I myself become the wounded person.” –Whitman

Ancestry.com

Bonnie — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:40:43 +0000

I am happy to announce some good news. After a very difficult Spring concerning my book and my publisher (I will talk about this at a later date) I was informed today that Ancestry.com would like me to be an affiliate.

This is such a good thing considering Ancestry.com has such a good reputation right now and endeavors to help families find their ancestors. I did all of my research to find my dad via the telephone information operators and post office employees. There was no Internet. I wrote away to cemetaries to find information back then.

About ten years ago I found my line of Texas cousins through my great grandmother, who are very much alive.

I am proud to be affiliated with Ancestry.com It is a win win situation for us both.

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Radio

Bonnie — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:35:16 +0000

My dad was in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not in the 1930’s for training his little Chihuahua to stand on one leg, other two legs thrust in the air on my dad’s thumb.

Monday morning I was interviewed by Tim O’Brian on Ripley’s Radio. Not sure when it will air but will keep you posted.

Radio Interview tomorrow July 10 7:30 PM EST

Bonnie — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:06:41 +0000

Tomorrow, July 10 at 7:30 EST I will be interviewed by Cyrus Webb on Blog Talk Radio.
Please join us. www.blogtalkradio.com/conversationslive

Review of Bobo’s Daughter by Molly Martin

Bonnie — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:51:24 +0000

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Reviewed by Molly Martin

Bobo’s Daughter
by Bonnie Barnett
Synergy Books
Hardcover: 232 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0984235872

Bobo’s Daughter begins in South Central Los Angeles. The year is 1952, it is a noticeably different area than is the South Central we often hear mentioned on the evening news today. It was nice place for a little girl growing up. All was going to change.

One Saturday morning Bonnie’s mom,with 4 year old Bonnie in tow, set out to meet the man Bonnie was told was her father. The pair entered a very different world filled with horses and elephants, trailers and trucks and little pens filled with small barking dogs and even a giraffe. It was all a bit overwhelming for a little girl. Suddenly a large person in torn, musty clothing appeared; he had red and black and white paint on his face. Lifting Bonnie the man said, “How about a kiss for your ol daddy?”

Before long a troupe of folks appeared, some wearing face paint, some in sequined costume, they all seemed to know who Bonnie was and; they even her Mom, Dottie. Called Jojo Barnett, Dorothy was the first girl clown. From that point the reader is carried along on the journey of a small girl, her tumultuous relationship with her mother and her search for the man who was her father.

Bobo’s Daughter offers the reader a peek into the man who was Bobo the clown, and some of the life experienced by those who choose a career in the circus. I particularly enjoyed Barnett’s mention of another clown, Otto Greibling. Greibling had been friends with Jojo and Bobo, Barnett sought his help in locating her dad. While I did not know Mr Greibling; I taught school with Greibling’s daughter in law in the San Joaquin Valley, California.

Chester “Bobo” Barnett, the Prince of Clowns, was a gifted, witty, charismatic humorous performer, who was beset with of the faults and peccadilloes as are part of the life of us all. Jojo and Bobo were unable to sustain a relationship, and their child suffered because of it.

As a clown Bobo Barnett spent much of his life bringing pleasure and amusement for adults and children across the nation and around the world. Regrettably, his immediate family; wife and daughter were not among those he sought to please.

Bobo’s Daughter is a touching account of a small child surrounded by paucity and melancholy. Realizing that her birth came as the result of an unwanted pregnancy; Barnett recounts her early life in vivid detail. She narrates the actions in her parents’ lives that led them to become circus clowns in the midst of the Great Depression, and those actions that led to her parents’ divorce. Motivated by a potent need to gain knowledge of family she never knew, Barnett undertook the investigation as an adult which led to her understanding her parents better and to ultimately finding her truant father.

Effectively forsaken by her father and resented by her mother, Barnett grew up feeling alone and lonesome. Having a mother who was neither willing nor capable to ease the emptiness caused by her father’s neglect, Barnett craved acceptance as she pined for her father’s consideration.

The strained association Barnett had with her mother, who had given up her own flourishing clowning career to raise her alone, in poverty, was no doubt a troubling situation for both. In spite of everything, Barnett did learn to look further than the hurt and discover feelings of satisfaction and acceptance for her multifaceted and versatile parents.

Despite having none of the familial support many of us enjoy, Barnett worked her way through school, achieved a Bachelors in Art and a Masters in psychology prior to her becoming a family therapist. Barnett recounts that during her search to find her biological father, she also realized that she had found her Heavenly Father as well. Her deep faith in God is evident in her writing, quoting of scripture and activities of her life.

I enjoyed the addition of a number of photos of her parents, in particular of her dad and the little dogs that were an integral part of his act. Chester Barnett and his wife are shown in street dress as well as in full clown attire. While Bobo’s Daughter is not an ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ type write it is a well written, easily readable account of one woman’s successful search for the parent she missed during childhood and the reconciliation of hope, reality and certainty.

A review of Bobo’s Daughter by Bonnie Barnett

Bobo’s Daughter on CD

Bonnie — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:16:26 +0000

I am beginning to record my book, Bobo’s Daughter, on CD. Should take a few months to have it completed but for those of you who like to “read” a good book while driving, this is for you.